言语想象的神经机制

言语想象不仅在大脑预处理机制方面起到重要的作用,还是目前脑机接口领域研究的热点。与正常言语产生过程相比,言语想象的理论模型、激活脑区、神经传导路径等均与其有较多相似之处。而言语障碍群体的言语想象、想象有意义的词语和句子时的脑神经机制与正常言语产生存在差异。鉴于人类言语系统的复杂性,言语想象的神经机制研究还面临一系列挑战,未来研究可在言语想象质量评价工具及神经解码范式、脑控制回路、激活通路、言语障碍群体的言语想象机制、词语和句子想象的脑神经信号等方面进一步探索,为有效提高脑机接口的识别率提供依据,为言语障碍群体的沟通提供便利。     

国内外预立医疗照护计划社会经济效益的探讨

从卫生经济学视角,探讨预立医疗照护计划的社会经济效益。通过分析预立医疗照护计划的卫生经济政策、经济分析模式及社会经济效益评价研究等发现,预立医疗照护计划具有较明显的社会经济效益。借鉴国外经验和结合我国文化背景提出预立医疗照护计划在我国发展的对策和建议,包括建立相关政策突破发展障碍;构建激励制度,加强人才培养以支撑预立医疗照护计划发展;开展评价预立医疗照护计划经济效益的研究,以价值为导向构建本土化的医疗模式,以期为我国发展预立医疗照护计划的卫生经济学研究领域提供理论依据。

     

高中生未来职业规划的发展趋势:基于潜变量增长模型的分析

为揭示高中生未来职业规划发展趋势;探究公正世界信念的影响;通过2年共5次问卷调查;对1646名高中生进行测试。潜变量增长模型分析发现:(1)高中生未来职业探索的发展趋势呈两阶段性;即先下降后增长;(2)高中生未来职业投入的发展趋势可分为2个亚组;高投入下降组和低投入增长组;(3)一般公正世界信念可以预测高中生未来职业探索的发展速率;个人公正世界信念可以预测高中生未来职业投入的发展趋势。研究结果揭示了公正世界信念对高中生未来职业规划发展轨迹的预测作用;验证了公正世界信念理论;对高中职业规划教育具有重要启示。     

Gender and age-related differences in attitudes toward traffic laws and traffic violations

The study examined gender and age-related differences in drivers’ normative motives for compliance with traffic laws and in gain–loss considerations related to driving. Two age groups of male and female students, totaling 181 respondents, completed a questionnaire measuring several normative motives for compliance with traffic laws, perceived gains and danger involved in the commission of traffic violations, and the frequency of committing various driving violations. The results show that younger drivers and male drivers express a lower level of normative motivation to comply with traffic laws than do female and older drivers. The lowest level of perceived importance of traffic laws relative to other laws was found among young male drivers. The commission of traffic violations was found to be related more to the evaluation of traffic laws among men and younger drivers, compared to women and older drivers. The perceived danger involved in the commission of a driving violation, however, was found to constitute much more of a factor among women than among men before the commission of traffic violations. Perceived gains involved in the commission of violations were more strongly pronounced among older drivers than among younger drivers. Results are discussed concerning different types of attitude–behavior relationships in the context of driving.     

Estimation of the Coefficient of Variation with Minimum Risk: A Sequential Method for Minimizing Sampling Error and Study Cost

The coefficient of variation is an effect size measure with many potential uses in psychology and related disciplines. We propose a general theory for a sequential estimation of the population coefficient of variation that considers both the sampling error and the study cost, importantly without specific distributional assumptions. Fixed sample size planning methods, commonly used in psychology and related fields, cannot simultaneously minimize both the sampling error and the study cost. The sequential procedure we develop is the first sequential sampling procedure developed for estimating the coefficient of variation. We first present a method of planning a pilot sample size after the research goals are specified by the researcher. Then, after collecting a sample size as large as the estimated pilot sample size, a check is performed to assess whether the conditions necessary to stop the data collection have been satisfied. If not an additional observation is collected and the check is performed again. This process continues, sequentially, until a stopping rule involving a risk function is satisfied. Our method ensures that the sampling error and the study costs are considered simultaneously so that the cost is not higher than necessary for the tolerable sampling error. We also demonstrate a variety of properties of the distribution of the final sample size for five different distributions under a variety of conditions with a Monte Carlo simulation study. In addition, we provide freely available functions via the MBESS package in R to implement the methods discussed.     

Investigations into pedestrian crossing choices on Cape Town freeways

South Africa is regularly identified in international literature as one of the countries with the highest number of traffic deaths per capita. Of these, around one third are pedestrians. Freeways constitute one of the highest risk locations for pedestrians – in most developed countries pedestrians are not seen in such locations, but for many South African pedestrians freeways are a regular part of their commute. Walking alongside and crossing of freeways are extremely common – and deaths associated with such activity also tragically so. Over the past four years in the Cape Town area alone there have been 413 pedestrian crashes causing 139 pedestrian deaths on freeways, as well as an unrecorded number of serious injuries.While pedestrian crossing behaviour has been extensively researched in many parts of the world, almost none has so far been carried out in the context of freeways. Little is known about pedestrian crossing decisions in locations where the stakes are so high.Following a study using traffic cameras associated with the Freeway Management System to measure the frequency and location of pedestrians crossing freeways, this article reports on surveys into crossing decisions of pedestrians on Cape Town’s freeways. Two successive surveys were conducted with pedestrians on or alongside the freeway. These included pedestrians who crossed using footbridges, and pedestrians who crossed at grade.In the analysis it was clear that while some of the traditional factors such as time saving and convenience were considered, far more important to pedestrians were issues of safety. Safety from fast-moving vehicles was one factor, while safety from criminals was a second and often conflicting factor which affected crossing choices. Crossing at grade was partly described in terms of utility maximisation (time and distance saving) but it was also, for many, one way of avoiding becoming a victim of crime. In terms of their perceptions of being involved in crashes, at-grade crossers reflected an astute awareness of the risks that they face. Many pedestrians articulated the belief that their choice of crossing was constrained by lack of alternatives. Until public transport and safe crossing locations are provided for these pedestrians it is clear that many will continue to cross dangerous roads, in full awareness of the risks they face.     

The role of traffic law enforcements in the relationship between cultural variables and traffic fatality rates across some countries of the world

The aims of the present study were to investigate whether cultural variables are related to law enforcements as well as traffic fatality rates and to examine the role of law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety (i.e., national speed law, national drink-driving law, national motorcycle helmet law, national seat-belt law, and national child restraint law) in the relationship between cultural variables and traffic fatality rates across countries of the world. The aggregated data of the study included Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Schwartz’s value dimensions, law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety, gross national income per capita, and traffic fatality rates for 97 countries of the world. The results showed that most of the cultural variables were associated with law enforcements of five risk factors for road safety and traffic fatality rates of countries. By bootstrapping, among Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, it was found that the indirect effects of long-term orientation (LTO) on fatality rates (FR) through speed, helmet, and child restraint enforcements were significant, separately. Among Schwartz’s value dimensions, the indirect effects of embeddedness on fatality rates through speed and child restraint enforcements were significant, separately. Intellectual autonomy had also significant indirect effects on fatality rates via speed and child restraint enforcements, separately. Finally, it was found that the indirect effects of affective autonomy on fatality rates through speed and helmet enforcements were significant, separately.     

Clinical Exchange: The Architectural Failure

The Clinical Exchange invites eminent clinicians of diverse persuasions to share, in ordinary language, their clinical formulations and treatment plans of the same psychotherapy patient—one not selected or nominated by those therapists—and then to discuss points of convergence and contention in their recommendations. This Exchange concerns a Mr. L, a 47-year-old, married man presenting for outpatient individual psychotherapy with chief complaints of depression, anxiety, and a lengthy history of vocational underachievement. Drs. Herbert Fensterheim, Leslie Greenberg, and Leigh McCullough, who anchor their practices in the cognitive-behavioral, experiential, and psychodynamic orientations, respectively, are the featured commentators. Finally, Dr. Jerold Gold, the case contributor and Mr. L's psychotherapist, provides a few closing comments.     

Determining the implementation order of a general plan by using a multicriteria method

We describe a real-life application of a new multicriteria method in the context of assisting the decision-making for a general plan in the municipality of Kirkkonummi in Uusimaa, Finland. At the time our group started working on the problem, a proposal for an overall plan had already been completed, but the order in which different regional parts of the plan should be implemented needed to be considered based on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure. The EIA procedure generated a large amount of data about the different impacts of the alternatives. For this group decision making problem we developed the SMAA-3 decision support method which does not require any explicit preference information from the decision makers during the procedure. The uncertainty of the basic data is modelled using ELECTRE III-type pseudo-criteria with preference and indifference thresholds. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Invertebrate Minds: A Challenge for Ethical Theory

This paper argues that navigating insects and spiders possess a degree of mindedness that makes them appropriate (in the sense of “possible”) objects of sympathy and moral concern. For the evidence suggests that many invertebrates possess a belief-desire-planning psychology that is in basic respects similar to our own. The challenge for ethical theory is find some principled way of demonstrating that individual insects do not make moral claims on us, given the widely held belief that some other “higher” animals do make such claims on us.